Nation Dispatches

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish community shattered by the deaths of seven siblings in a house fire carried out their funerals Sunday, a day after a hot plate left on for the Sabbath is believed to have sparked the fire that killed them.

The tragedy had some neighborhood Jews reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting use of fire on the holy day.

The bodies of the children from the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, were to be flown to Israel after the funeral for a prompt burial. They died early Saturday when flames engulfed their home.

Investigators believe the hot plate left on a kitchen counter set off the fire that trapped the children and badly injured their mother and another sibling.

VALLEY MILLS, Texas

Train derailments in West leak solvent, dump coal

While a crew worked Sunday to clean up the scene in Central Texas where the derailment of about a dozen train cars resulted in an industrial solvent leaking from one tanker, a train jumped its tracks in northern Colorado, dumping coal from more than two dozen cars.

Spokesmen with BNSF Railway said Sunday it wasn’t yet known what caused either derailment. No injuries were reported.

In Texas, the cars derailed Saturday evening near Valley Mills, a town about 25 miles northwest of Waco. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Trooper D.L. Wilson said that about four homes were evacuated as a precaution.

SANTA ANA, Calif.

Accused Islamic State supporter vows revenge

A 21-year-old Southern California man accused of trying to join the Islamic State group vowed revenge and identified with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France in a series of writings to a newspaper.

Adam Dandach, who pleaded not guilty last week to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group and other charges, sent four letters and two poems from jail to the Orange County Register.

One poem reads, “Oh, you hateful fiends! / Know that revenge will come / You’re standing in front of the One (God) / A punishment in a fiery sea / Of carnage and blazing agony”

Dandach’s attorney Pal Lengyel-Leahu said publishing the writings is akin to trying Dandach in the newspaper.

“He’s just a kid. He’s in way over his head,” Lengyel-Leahu said. “He’s actually a decent person.”

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